Can you help me with the title of a book, which was later filmed, though I can't
remember the names of any of the cast? It starts with the rape of a
young woman by 3 young men (college students?), who are never brought
to trial, because of their "unimpeachable" backgrounds and the lack of
corraboratory evidence.
In later years, the 3 of them, all now pillars of respectability, all
married, own a remote cabin in the woods, from where they hunt and
kill men/women they have kidnapped whilst on hunting trips. The
book/film centres on one such episode, however the twist is that even
as they are pursuing their quarry, the 3 are themselves being hunted.
It transpires that the mysterious hunter is a (deputy?)police chief
who is either the husband or father of the young woman
who was originally assaulted. After killing the 3, the police chief
carefully hides all evidence of what happened and (in the film version
at least)when investigating the disappearance of the 3 men says
something to the ffect "we'll never know what happened."
Many thanks,

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 17 Apr 2005 02:11 PDT

Hi jmg1949,

Is there anything else you can remember about this book/movie? The
year the movie came out, any character's name, actor (no matter how
small the part was), any part of the title,etc... Any detail, no
matter how small, may help in this search. Thanks.

Best regards,
Rainbow

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Clarification of Question by jmg1949-ga on 17 Apr 2005 05:00 PDT

Hi there,

Thanks for going to all this trouble. Hope the following hepls:

I think that both the film and the book shared the same two word
title. The early 1970's to early 80's is possibly when the book was
published, originally in the USA, then via a UK publisher. The film
came afterwards, though I don't know what the gap between the two was.
I believe I saw it no later than 1983 and possibly as early as 1975. 
I'm pretty sure the paperback book I read predated the film and wasn't
sold as a tie-in. I think all this was around the time of "First
Blood", which David Morrell wrote in 1972, with the film (Rambo)being
in 1982. From memory, there was some similarity of writing style with
that of Morrell, though I'm sure it wasn't him who wrote the book,
unless under a nom de plume. For what it's worth, I thought that
Robert Mitchum might have played the Police Chief, with Peter Fonda
(or, more likely a similar sort of actor)taking the part of the lead
villian, but my attempts to locate a name via filmographies proved
fruitless - though I may not have been assiduous enough.  One of the
most memorable scenes in the film is towards the end, where the lead
villian, now the only one of the three left alive, is in a barn.
Hanging behind him is the body of one of the others, which he found
earlier. Only the "body" is now "Mitchum", who duly shoots the guy.
Going back to the book, the woman who is kidnapped and taken to the
cabin seeks to ingratiate herself with her captors by becoming a
willing sexual partner, but this strategy fails. I also seem to recall
that "Mitchum" erases all traces of what went on in the cabin,
including evidence of earlier murders, so that the police
investigation reveals nothing. The violence and sexuality depicted in
the book and on film isn't particularly graphic, but would I guess
have warranted an "adult" rating, or whatever the equivalent was at
the time.

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 17 Apr 2005 14:33 PDT

Could the hero have been Mike Connors rather than Robert Mitchum?

"REVENGE FOR A RAPE (Aired on ABC 11/19/76) A man becomes a full
fledged vigilante when his wife is raped by three men while on a
camping trip. Gripping drama in the Death Wish mode. With Mike Connors
and Robert Reed."

http://cinefear.com/televisionterrors2.html

Hello.

The movie was "Open Season" (a.k.a. "The Recon Game," a.k.a "Los
Cazadores") (1974).

The book was "Open Season" by David Osborn. 

The movie did indeed star Peter Fonda.  The part of "Robert Mitchum"
seems to have been played by William Holden. ;-)


From Amazon: 

"Osborn sets the scene by introducing the main protaganists as
students, who commit an act of barbarism but, due to their well-to-do
family backgrounds get let off with a slap on the wrist. The book then
moves forward in time to when the grown up students are all successful
family men who meet up once a year to go on a hunting trip together."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0803761813/

From the Internet Movie Database:

"Three Vietnam vets have become so conditioned to violence that they
have developed psychotic tendencies. They kidnap people, brutalize
them, then turn them loose and hunt them like animals. However the
father of one of their earlier victims is plotting a vicious revenge
against them."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071292/plotsummary
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071292/

"While on a hunting trip, three men kidnap and savagely attack a young
couple before releasing them to be tracked down and killed. The three
men however, find that they are the hunted instead of the hunters when
a mysterious stranger begins to stalk them."
http://www.allaboutmovies.com.au/Title.asp?Key=1309&optMedia=V

Cheap copies of the book are also listed on Abebooks:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=osborn&y=0&tn=open+season&x=0

---------
search strategy:
"three men kidnap" movie

Thanks.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 17 Apr 2005 15:44 PDT

The video seems to be rare, but one copy is currently listed on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=309&item=6386551230&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Very impressed withthe way in which you handled this and with the
information provided to support the reply.  Well done and my thanks to
all involved.